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· Programming
#Next Amigas
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Re: 68881 and speeding up (any) mandebrot program. Is there some software
(like the 'find the illegal stack frame instruction(s)' "wedge" ) that can
allow any program to use the 68881. I thought that most programs had to make
explicit use of a floating point unit to achieve any speed increase from
them. If that is not the case why do so many compiler adds say things like
"We have 8087 support" ? Perhaps the motorola FFP library knows how to use
the 6881 if it exists? I'd love to have the CSA upgrade if I thought I
did'nt have to convert current programs. Perhaps I'm all wrong, please let
me know.
The big advantage of a library is that as long as you keep the same interface
you can recompile ( reassemble ? ) it at will. If someone supplies a FP library
to use the 68881 all you need to do is put that library where your compiler can
see it instead of the present one. If you the relink your programs they should
run the same as before ( except faster ).
BTW the reason that compilers for antique computers had to directly support
devices is that they didn't have a library system.
A good example of all of this is the printer drivers. Text processors on old
machines had to each have routines to support different printers. On the AMIGA
you just supply the correct driver routine once and every program uses it.
Even bigger advantage with Amiga's are the ROM libraries, and also disk
resident libraries. They have the same advantages, save for a very small
speed penalty, but have two other BIG advantages: you never have to
recompile/relink/re-anything in the application program, you just fix the
library. If a library has bugs and 100 programs use the library, all you fix
is the library , the programs should then all work without updates. The
other big advantage is that each program is much smaller, since it doesn't
have to carry around the library routines with it. Also, you only keep one
copy of the library in ram, and many programs can share acess. I hope there
will be a number of nifty libraries available as PD or low-fee tools
available to all developers/publishers/hackers-at-large.
Even bigger advantage with Amiga's are the ROM libraries, and also disk
resident libraries. They have the same advantages, save for a very small
speed penalty, but have two other BIG advantages: you never have to
recompile/relink/re-anything in the application program, you just fix the
library. If a library has bugs and 100 programs use the library, all you fix
is the library , the programs should then all work without updates. The
other big advantage is that each program is much smaller, since it doesn't
have to carry around the library routines with it. Also, you only keep one
copy of the library in ram, and many programs can share acess. I hope there
will be a number of nifty libraries available as PD or low-fee tools
available to all developers/publishers/hackers-at-large.
The big advantage of a library is that as long as you keep the same interface
you can recompile ( reassemble ? ) it at will. If someone supplies a FP library
to use the 68881 all you need to do is put that library where your compiler can
see it instead of the present one. If you the relink your programs they should
run the same as before ( except faster ).
BTW the reason that compilers for antique computers had to directly support
devices is that they didn't have a library system.
A good example of all of this is the printer drivers. Text processors on old
machines had to each have routines to support different printers. On the AMIGA
you just supply the correct driver routine once and every program uses it.